1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-view stereo imaging system and a compression/decompression method applied thereto. More particularly, the present invention relates to a multi-view stereo imaging system and a compression/decompression method applied thereto for transmitting, receiving, and decompressing compression-ratio-enhanced images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Studies are actively undertaken across the world on developing three-dimensional video technologies including multi-view video technologies, especially in the USA, Europe, and Japan. In Europe, in order to develop a new three-dimensional television (TV) to substitute for a high definition television (HDTV) and two-dimensional TV, the European Union carried out a joint project COST230 (1991-1996) for standardizations for three-dimensional TV-related devices, three-dimensional image signal encoding, and transmission technologies. As a result, the European Union developed the three-dimensional image display and image transmission service technologies. The Package for New Operational Autostereoscopic Multi-view systems (PANORAMA) (1991-2001) project of the Advisory Committee for Advanced Television Service (ACTS) is developing multi-view stereo imaging systems for the purpose of utilizing three-dimensional imaging remote display devices in communications, and is developing multi-view video-related technologies. Also, another three-dimensional technology-related project, the Advanced Three-Dimensional Television System Technologies (ATTEST) project by eight European organizations, such as Philips and HHI in 2002, is in progress for the purpose of developing three-dimensional TV systems. The ATTEST performs research with a goal for developing systems compatible with the present two-dimensional digital TV while enabling users to enjoy three-dimensional images by additionally sending three-dimensional depth information.
Japan is attempting to implement three-dimensional television sets through the high definition three-dimensional project (1997-2002). In order to solve the problems such as unnatural distance feelings of existing stereo-view TV and fatigue derived from long-hour TV watching, Japan attempted to develop a three-dimensional TV by utilizing special display technologies using a multi-view imaging method or holography. Japan also performed studies on three-dimensional display devices, three-dimensional imaging systems, stereo visions, and the like.
Currently, one transmission channel is limited to 6 MHz in the DTV standards adopting MPEG2, which corresponds to the compression capability of transmission of a sheet of HD-class image through a channel. In such a given channel environment, a limitation exists in the bandwidth when transmitting an HD-class stereo image, that is, two sheets of HD-class images. Also, the multi-view video compression requires a much broader bandwidth compared to the compression transmission of an existing single camera, so that a high-efficiency and high-compression-ratio compression method compared to a conventional method is required.